Interviews

Channel Partners are Key to Our Success

by VARINDIA 2010-04-22

Brief us about ESET in India?

ESET in India is represented by ESS Software Distribution & Consulting (P) Ltd. ESS Software Distribution & Consulting (P) Ltd. is the Exclusive Distributor of ESET products in India. Since its inception in June 2008, ESS has mainly focussed to build a strong channel base in India which includes activities such as brand promotion, presales and post- implementation support. ESS channel programme educates resellers about the various ESET security solutions and equips them to be able to convey the right information to end-customers. Realizing the potential of the Indian market, ESS has done aggressive online promotions as well as on-ground activities to strengthen its channel network in India as well as awareness among the corporate and SOHO segments.

What is the staff strength you have in India?

ESS Team consists of dedicated Sales, Marketing and technical professionals. We have a team of 10 members with total 25 years of industry experience. We have Sales Managers and Regional Heads managing the key accounts. We have technical support managers handling the support queries.

What is the USP of ESET antivirus and how does it stand vis-a-vis the competition?

ESET has pioneered and continue to lead the industry in proactive threat detection. Built on the award-winning Threat Sense technology, ESET is a tightly integrated security solution that users can trust to protect their computers. ESET has detection techniques like “Advanced Heuristics” and “Generic Signatures” which offer comprehensive protection against the sophisticated threats. ESET has the highest detection rate, minimal system footprint which has been proved through the various tests conducted by independent testing organizations such as AV comparatives and VB 100. ESET is the record holder for the total number of VB 100 awards by Virus bulletin which itself speak about the quality of the product.

Which vertical market at present are you focussing?

Currently, we are more focussed on the SMB, Government, NGO and educational segments. We are also targeting the SOHO segment as ESET retail box packs are available at a very competitive price

What is your marketing strategy for ESET products?

Most of the activities that we did in the past were channel focussed. Channel partners are key to the success of ESET in the Indian market till date. So, our prime focus would be strengthening the channel base as well as launch aggressive campaigns to develop our channel base in India. The Indian market is growing at the rate of 20–25% on an average. So, we definitely have strategies to create a niche for the ESET products and position the ESET brand among top 5 AV vendors in the Indian market. We will be having training camps for the channel partners related to product marketing, sales and technical support at various locations on a quarterly basis. This would be followed by online advertisements and BTL activities like road shows, events, etc.

How do you address the support issues in India?

Being a premium AV Brand, one of the major USP of ESET is the limited post- implementation technical support issues. To address and resolve support issues, we have a full-fledged team of young technical professionals and experienced technical support managers equipped with required tools.

What is your resellers’ and channel partners’ strength?

We have a wide network of Channel partners spread across India. The main strength of our channel partners is that they are very well placed in different industry verticals, aware of ESET products portfolio and bring in their vast experience to promote ESET aggressively in the market.

How is your empowerment and incentivization programme for the partners?

We basically work on the discount schemes during the festival season on our business edition licences. With the retail boxes, now we will have drip down incentive schemes not only for the platinum and gold retail partners but also for the partners who put in their efforts to sell minimum number of boxes in the month. Our motto is that each partner putting in his efforts to sell ESET should get the benefit of our incentive programmes, rebates and discounts. We are also planning to have schemes for the sales executives of the channel partners.

What kind of market growth do you see in a year’s time for ESET?

We are growing at a steady rate with the corporate licensing alone. With the single user and three user box packs coming in our product portfolio, now we will concentrate on the SOHO segment as well. We have got good technology and our marketing team is working on the brand awareness part. With the entry of the new players, definitely the competition has increased. But with our strategies in place this year definitely we will give a fight to our competitors. We are expecting a growth of 100% as compared to last year.

Please let us know about your latest ranges of antivirus products (2010)?

ESET has recently launched version 4.2. We have ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.2 and ESET Smart Security 4.2 in Home and Business edition. We also have a new version of ESET Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange Server in the server edition product range.

We will soon release the ESET Remote Administrator 4 which in the beta phase and is expected to be made available shortly for the business users. Version 4.2 offers various features like smallest system footprint, advanced HTTP scanning, GUI enhancement, etc. when compared with the ESET 4.0 version.